If You Fly Away Tonight
by fowl68
Summary: It was he and Kakashi’s day for eating dinner. It used to be the entire team’s dinner night, but there was no one else left. Implied SasuNaru Possible MinaKaka if you look at it diagonally.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything! The song lyrics are from Things Left Unsaid by Disciple.

**Author's Note:** What _is_ it with inspirations coming too late at night? It's like dreamland hates me or something.

School has started up once again and I am now officially a sophomore! And I got a B on the Chemistry pre-test and no PE this year! I am uber happy about that latter part. It's too hot and humid where I live to be outside for any extended period of time.

And on a last note, this is my first attempt at possible MinaKaka. It could be taken as platonic for those of you that are against it. I don't quite know how I intended for it to come out.

-~-~-~-~

"_Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."-Anonymous_

-~-~-~

_It's just a matter of time_

_A few days ago_

_I saw you, you were fine,_

_Remembering what you said _

_About the book you read_

"We finally got a name for the baby." Minato said over his shoulder to his (former) student. The blonde didn't need to see the teenager's face to know that an eyebrow was being arched.

"Oh really?"  
"Mmhmm. We got it from Sensei's book. Naruto."  
"You're naming it after a food?" Kakashi reached around him to sneak a taste of Minato's homemade tomato sauce. The slender hand was whacked lightly away with a wooden spoon.

"You really shouldn't be talking. A scarecrow, really?" Minato carefully poured his sauce over the ravioli.

It was he and Kakashi's day for eating dinner. It used to be the entire team's dinner night, but there was no one else left.

_The one I got you,_

_The beginning of the end_

_Oh, how we talked _

_Hours upon end_

"I really have to thank you for getting that book for my birthday. Otherwise we'd have to name our kid something ridiculous and normal."  
"Oh, the horror of being normal." Kakashi rolled his visible eye as he popped a ravioli in his mouth. "How far along is Kushina now?"  
"Eight months and a few weeks. The baby's due in two weeks. She's so excited." Minato didn't have to say that he was just as excited, and nervous, as his wife.

"Jiraiya-san needs better names for his characters."

"Hey," Minato pointed his chopsticks threateningly at Kakashi. "That's my kid's name you're joking about."  
Before Minato could, or would, do anything, Kakashi snatched a ravioli from his plate. "And that's your ravioli you're letting go cold."

_What I would give just to do it again_

_You're lying there in this hospital bed_

_Won't you open your eyes_

_And let's talk once again…_

It seemed odd that they'd both sat in Kakashi's apartment eating ravioli only a few nights ago. But then, these last couple of days seemed like they'd been stretched into forever. Death, destruction, devastation and a whole long list of D words that Kakashi didn't quite want to think about.

Because Minato was dead.

The ANBU had already taken little Naruto, born too early from stress on Kushina's part and Kakashi was left here on his knees in the muddy ground, staring at his sensei's body. The color hadn't even entirely left the tan skin yet.

A solid hand settled itself on his shoulder and he found himself looking up blankly, his mind taking a moment to register the face. Asuma. It took a bit longer to realize why the dark brown hair was dripping and the ANBU uniform was clinging to his skin. In the time since Naruto had gotten taken away, a gentle rain had begun.

"Come on, Kakashi." Asuma spoke lowly, carefully, though there was no mistaking the order in the tone. "Let's get you dry. You'll catch your death of a cold out here."

Kakashi's body stood and followed Asuma back into what was left of the village, but his mind was still seeing Minato lying there and some small part of him was half hoping he'd open his eyes and grin. _"April fools, Kakashi. You fell for it!"_

_If you fly away tonight_

_Wanna tell you that I love you_

_I hope that you can hear me_

_I hope that you can feel me_

_If you fly away tonight  
Wanna tell you that I'm sorry _

_That I never told you_

_When we were face to face_

No one saw Kakashi at the funeral. But then, he didn't want to be seen. Didn't want to see the pitying looks, didn't want to hear the 'I'm sorry's.' He was there however. Watching from one of the remaining trees left standing, he was sitting in a position he hadn't sat in since he was a child. Since before he met a man named Namikaze Minato.

Knees pulled up a little and arms wrapped loosely around his knees. Kakashi lets both eyes cry this day, lets one eye memorize every detail. He remembers Kurenai's buttons being done rather shakily on her shirt, remembers how tired Asuma looked and remembers not seeing Jiraiya-san there. He would later find out that that was the day that Jiraiya left the village to travel, not returning for a decently long amount of time until twelve years later.

After everyone leaves, Kakashi goes down and, instead of paying his respects; he stands there, hands in his pockets, staring at the familiar picture. It was the one they took when he became Hokage and he and Rin had always agreed that the picture didn't quite capture their sensei. It was too formal.

The words he doesn't remember speaking, but he knows he said were "I'm sorry."

* * *

_Well, I've been here all night_

_I've been watching you_

_Breathe in and breathe out_

_Is it really you or just a machine _

_That's giving you life and makin' it seem_

_That there could be hope I could say it to your face_

Naruto sat in the distinctly uncomfortable hospital chair, not quite feeling the plastic. The familiar face, angled a little differently than it had been when they were twelve, was paler than he knew it should be; was thinner than was healthy.

It was nearing three weeks since Uchiha Sasuke had been admitted into the hospital after severe complications from torture. He hadn't woken once.

_If it weren't for you_

_Then there would be no grace_

_That's covering my life_

_You took the time to speak into my mind and my heart _

_Words of life_

The visits from Kakashi and Sakura came less and less, though they made it a point to stay for an hour or two every time they did. Naruto pretended he didn't notice the pitying looks the nurses gave him.

"Poor boy." They'd whisper. "So lonely looking. If that Uchiha hasn't recovered yet, he never will."

The blonde ignored it all. They didn't know Sasuke, didn't know that Sasuke was a stubborn teme and wouldn't let something like a little torture and a come beat him down. So he spoke to him, every day. Everything down to the little meaningless details.

The clouds were gathering more thickly over Konoha. It would be rainy season in a few weeks. Ichiraku had made a new flavor, one with tomatoes. The trees' leaves were darkening in color to their rich dark green, the color of summer to all the residents of the village.

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes was enough; sometimes, Naruto could see Sasuke's eyelids flutter and Naruto wondered if he was subconsciously rolling his eyes to whatever he'd said.

It would be just like Sasuke; mocking him even from the depths of a coma.

_If you fly away tonight_

_Wanna tell you that I love you_

_I hope that you can hear me_

_I hope that you can feel me_

_If you fly away tonight_

_Wanna tell you that I'm sorry_

_That I never told you_

_When we were face to face_

Naruto had been napping when a noise that wasn't part of the quiet, constant chorus of Sasuke's room rang through the silence. The blonde's head shot up immediately, searching for the source of the constant, high sound. It was a flat tone and Dear God, don't let that be what he thought it was and it was because that green line on the screen that Naruto had become so familiar with, the one that spiked regularly, was no longer spiking.

He felt frantically for a pulse; at the neck, at the wrist, he even put his ear to Sasuke's chest, hoping to hear something, anything, resembling a heartbeat.

Not even an echo was heard.

_So goodbye for now and I'll see you again_

_Someway, somehow_

_When is my time to go _

_To the other side_

_I'll hold you again and melt at your smile_

Time slowed, stilled and trudged into movement again as Naruto watched them cover Sasuke with the white cloth, watched them take him down to the morgue. He couldn't remember being gently taken by the elbow and Sakura's eyes, pitying and sad and tearful, telling him to go home. That there wasn't anything else he could do.

He couldn't remember going home. He did remember creeping into Sasuke and his bed, Sasuke's scent there and in the dark, he almost let himself believe that Sasuke was just away for a little while, that he would wake up one morning and feel the familiar warmth beside him and that this all never happened, that it was all a bad dream.

But the karmic rule was that all bad dreams come true. Or, at least his did.

_Now all I have are the ones that I'm with_

_And you taught me not to take for granted_

_The time that we have_

_To show that we care_

_Speak into the minds and the hearts_

_Words of life_

_And say I love you…_

He couldn't stay in the village after that. He loved the village, but he couldn't stand seeing the ghosts of once upon a time anymore. He was on constant missions, never home—no, he couldn't call it that, not anymore—for more than two days maximum.

The hospital records of his last mission would be bad enough that most nurses didn't want to read them, couldn't read them. He didn't fight it, didn't question seeing that interesting light in all that fading darkness.

A familiar person was in front of him, the person he couldn't forget even if he tried. But the image was a little blurred, like a mirage. Naruto reached out, tentatively letting his fingers whisper over pale skin, afraid to touch even that much. He was afraid that the mirage would shatter if he so much as breathed wrong, it seemed so fragile.

"Sasuke?"

A smirk-smile twitched at the brunette's lips. "Hey, dobe."

_If you fly away tonight_

_Wanna tell you that I love you_

_And hope that you can hear me_

_And hope that you can feel me_

_If you fly away tonight_

_I'll tell you that I'm sorry_

_That I never told you_

_When we were face to face…_


End file.
